1. Field of the Invention
The subject invention relates to automatic balancing systems and more particularly to balancing systems that incorporate a cutting machine to remove material from a subject part to render the part rotationally balanced.
2. Summary of the Prior Art
A wide variety of systems have been developed to satisfy a broad-based need for balancing parts used in rotating machines.
One of these systems for balancing parts has been a combination of an electric analog balancer with a skilled operator who manually calculates a part's imbalance using polar graph paper. After calculating the error, the approximate amount of material to be removed was obtained from a chart of previously calculated material removal values. This system of operator calculation involves vector analysis on vector graph paper which inherently requires a certain degree of operator sophistication. The part would then be placed on a manually operated cutting machine, and the necessary part material would be removed to bring the part into a balanced condition for use in a rotating environment.
This manual system has several drawbacks. The use of polar graph paper is generally inaccurate because it requires user interpolation, and the variation in thickness of a pencil lead alone can cause significant errors. The use of charts that cannot realistically list all possible values also necessitates user interpolation. Also, the manual operation of cutting the part is time consuming, and when errors are made, an almost finished part can become useless.
A variety of other balancing systems that achieve varying degrees of automation have been developed. One of the more intriguing systems is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,028,524. This disclosed system uses a laser beam to accomplish the necessary removal on a trial and error basis. This system has one drawback in that lasers, at least to date, can only be used to remove small amounts of part material and lasers require a clear path of firing.
Many other balancing systems are disclosed by the prior art. These have certain advantages and disadvantages, but none are particularly suited for automatically calculating a correct amount and location of material to be removed and then removing that material with a common cutting machine.